[Outro]
To all my niggas locked up
From Queensbridge and all over
To my man [Goon?], one love
To my man [Her?], one love
To my man [Lake Gucciano?], one love
Can't forget my motherfuckin' heart, Big [Bo?], one love
To [Oogie?], yeah, one love

About “One Love”

As the video for this track reveals, the format of the song is in the style of a letter to friends doing time in prison, Nas waxes Homeric on the current state of things in the hood

The beat, produced by Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, samples the Heath Brothers' “Smilin' Billy Suite Part II” and Parliament’s “Come In Out the Rain”

The third verse of this song was used in the movie Belly, starring Nas and DMX

This shifting of perspective in his verses is one of Nas’s iconic techniques, as Adam Bradley notes:

Nas is perhaps contemporary rap’s greatest innovator in storytelling. His catalog includes songs narrated before birth (‘Fetus’) and after death (‘Amongst Kings’), biographies (‘UBR [Unauthorized Biography of Rakim]’) and autobiographies (‘Doo Rags’), allegorical tales (‘Money Is My Bitch’) and epistolary ones (‘One Love’), he’s rapped in the voice of a woman (‘Sekou Story’) and even of a gun (‘I Gave You Power’).

Nas' storytelling abilities stem from none other than Slick Rick. The last verse is almost reminiscent of Slick Rick’s ‘'Children’s Story’‘ as Nas tells a young child about the life of crime.

What have the artists said about the song?

Q-Tip: Just from when you heard Nas initially, you knew he was ill. When I first heard him rhyme, I knew he was ill. Everybody knew he was ill. But I told Faith, “You guys got somebody special.” Because he has vulnerability in his rhymes. A lot of niggas who MC, you don’t hear the vulnerability. He keeps it relatable, but he has a lot of depth. He can keep it gangsta, he can keep it educated, he can keep it thoughtful. He can tell you that he’s the shit, & he can tell you when he fucks up. And that’s what makes Nas endearing to everybody.

Still Ill In spring 1994, a chip-tooth kid outta Queensbridge released a 10-song debut album that set a new standard for hip-hop lyricism. Fifteen years later, XXL takes a trip down memory lane to get an in-depth look at the making of a classic. It's Illmatic. Yeah.

Why is Q-Tip not marked as a featured artist? The hook is not sampled, right?

A good guess is that Q-Tip isn’t marked as a featured artist because he only does the hook. If he’d had a rap verse, that might have warranted it back then. Being marked as a “featured” artist was about helping market to people. His name recognition alone probably wasn’t just wasn’t enough in 1994.

Feature credits weren’t prominently displayed on the cover art back then unless it was a huge artist. They’d probably be buried somewhere in the credits, like Q-Tip’s showstealing verse on Deee-Lite’s “Groove Is In The Heart.”